Woody Family Cafe at 12F Andrews Avenue - Revisit with Bob & G2 & Stanley

The Ownership

Woody Family Cafe at 12F Andrews Avenue is owned by Executive Chef Jenny Yeo & her husband Sam. The restaurant serves authentic Peranakan Cuisine, Western-Asian Fusion Cuisine in a rustic cozy ambience. 

The Ambience 

Much of the decor, furnishings & fittings are the handiworks of Sam, Co-founder of Woody Family Cafe, from the bamboo fencing to the batik ceiling decor, to the mini hanging lights that spans the entire ceiling, to the photo montage of Celebrities from the 1950s to 1990s on the wall of the Barista Bar Counter. Sam's creative streak pretty much exhibited in the varied aesthetic design of the cafe's ambience somewhat balances the pragmatic organised clockwork like operations in the kitchen where Executive Chef Jenny Yeo commands her team of at least 6 chefs & kitchen help in generating the orders for the night. 

Much of the accolades & media write-ups are proudly framed & displayed on the wall overlooking the Celebrities Photo Montage.

Our busy Barista happily churns out beverages : lattes, cocktail, mocktails, beer for the cafe diners.

These photo Montage on the wall beside the Barista counter depicts the many Celebrities from the 1950's to 1990's era, ranging from Whitney Houston, Marilyn Monroe, Franki Valli, Kenny Rogers, Elvis Priestly, to the Beatles, Nat King Cole & many more, lending a nostalgic touch to the cafe ambience. 

The Chef in Action 

Whilst the dining area is a relaxing chill out place, the kitchen is in a totally different dimension altogether. Here's Executive Chef Jenny Yeo checking out the orders for the evening, all lined up in proper manner & precision. 

The 5- 6 kitchen helpers & Sous Chefs work in clockwork like manner each generating their designated dish at each station in an orderly manner. 

Since there are four of us : Bob ,yours truly, G2, Stanley, we ordered the Peranakan Set that comprise of Soup, Salad, drinks, Main Dish, plus Chinchalok Fried Rice (strongly recommended by Chef Jenny Yeo).

Soup of the day - Clear tasty savory soup with tinge of chicken & pork flavor, delicious & refreshing.

Salad of the day - made of core ingredients raw julienned purple cabbage & celery, cereals, mango & cucumber julienned, drizzled with salad cream lends a sweet creamy crunchy bite. 

Chinchalok Fried Rice - core ingredients used rice, chinchalok, omelette egg, chicken diced, prawns de-shelled & deveined. I love this fried rice very much - savory with a tinge of spiciness in the aftertaste. Chef Jenny Yeo uses fresh large prawns with a crunchy bite. 

Devil's Curry Chicken - this is a curry not for the faint hearted. I must warn you that if you cannot take spicy food, you'd better refrain from savoring this dish. For the spicy Curry lovers, this is a must have ! The spiciness from the curry lingers on for quite a while right after you eat it. The curry gravy is very lemak you can tell Chef Jenny Yeo does not stinge on the curry powder. 

Braised Pork Knuckles - the meat in this dish has been tenderly braised for hours till the meat is tender & soft, with a melt in your mouth consistency. The gravy is sweet more than savory. Strongly recommended for those pork knuckle lovers.

WOODY FAMILY CAFE is located at :

12F ANDREWS AVENUE 

SEMBAWANG STRAITS ESTATE SINGAPORE 759930 

Tel: 67581185 

Mobile: 98356126 

email: events@woodyfamilycafe.com.sg 

email: yeojenny@woodyfamilycafe.com.sg

Woody Family Cafe at 12F Andrews Avenue - The Beginnings The Ambience The Chef The Signatures The Promotions

The Beginnings 

Armed with an MBA from University of Leicester, UK, Jenny Yeo spent a good number of years climbing the corporate ladder, and established herself as a experienced HR Director overseeing HR Operations in many big corporations. Though having achieved much in the corporate world, she felt this inner calling to follow her Peranakan roots. Armed with many of the traditional Peranakan recipes passed down by her mum, Jenny embarked on her culinary journey as a Chef and in 19 Sep 2009, started Woody Family Cafe together with her husband Sam as Co-Founder. 

It was a dream come true for both Sam & Jenny as they both long wanted to run their very own PUB Restaurant.  Sam is skilled in operations and loves to create ideas for its exterior & interior decorations & ambience settings.  As for Jenny, she loves to cook and being a Peranakan by birth she has acquired skills from her late mother. Woody Family Cafe first started off with a Fusion Peranakan Cuisine with both Western & Peranakan cuisine fusion blended.

Whilst Jenny takes care of the software: Woody Family Cafe's website, Woody Family Cafe's online presence, the Peranakan & Fusion recipes, the Pernankan & Fusion Cuisine, the Cafe's kitchen, the raw ingredients, the procurement;  Sam handles the hardware at the cafe: the fittings, furnishing, electrical fittings, mechanical, technical aspects as well as the creative decor. 

Sam had been a talented musician in his younger days, specializing in keyboard and the guitar. He played popular contemporary songs from the 1960's to the 1980's, and had performed in public in many renowned Singapore nightclubs, hotels and pubs as well as in gigs and road shows. 

Jenny was in the Financial Sector majoring in Human Resource & Accounting for more than 35 years in MNCs.  Her scope is wide as she majored in Franchising, as well as structuring & setting of businesses of wider scopes in terms of Human Resources, Administration and Accounting. 

Jenny, being the go-getter, meticulous, thorough, well-organised personality, whilst Sam is the quintessential gentleman, always patient, very creative, very resourceful, flamboyant, easy-going, sociable, and extremely musically talented. It is these contrasting personality types that enables this husband and wife team to complement each other beautifully.

The Ambience 

When I first step into Woody Family Cafe at 12F Andrews Avenue, the Cafe's rustic charm setting gives a cozy warm feel. There is no table number allocated to each table, instead the tables are each given a name based on the decor theme. So there is the India Corner (below)

The Breezy Corner 

The Bibi-Baba Corner

The Relax Corner 

The Rustic Corner

The Family Corner  

The Adam Corner 

The Eve Corner 

The ceiling is lined with Peranakan inspired weaving cloths, interspersed with small bright light bulbs, giving the  dining section a warm cozy feel. 

The Chef - Jenny Yeo 

The Signatures 

Some of the must try Signature dishes are :

Mini loaf Mushroom Soup (below) - The mushroom soup is made using core ingredients: fresh Shiitake mushroom, some Button Mushroom, plus a special type of mushroom.

How it is prepared : Chef Jenny Yeo first cooked the fresh mushrooms for 1 hour, then blend/pureed it. Besides that, she still add fresh mushrooms, then whip it with some fresh milk to lend a creamy texture to the soup. So essentially, the fresh mushrooms are first sweat with olive oil and garlic for 1 hour, pureed, then to it is added more fresh cooked mushroom. The mushroom is pureed with added pepper but no salt for a healthier taste, then to it is added fresh cream, which is whipped into the soup, to make it creamy. Husband Sam suggested to Chef Jenny Yeo - to serve the mushroom soup using freshly baked mini French loaf. Chef Jenny Yeo gets her mini loaf from her regular Bakery supplier. When the bun is warmed up together it becomes crispy. 

Food Tasting Notes : The taste is creamy, mushroomry, savory. A little unsalted butter is added only to taste. You can taste bits of the mushrooms in the soup. 

Curry Pork Ribs - The rempah paste is made using special secret recipe from Jenny's late Mum. The core ingredients include: chili padi, dried chili, fresh chili, garlic, shallot, lemongrass, ginger, coriander, some ordinary curry powder, but no coconut. Chef Jenny Yeo uses fresh chilled Baby Back Ribs from USA.

How it is prepared : There is no need to marinate the meat, just need to simply fry the rempah for about 20 mins until there is a fragrant aroma, then stir constantly for about 2 hrs on low fire till rempah flavor is fully absorbed into the meat. As Baby Back ribs usually does not have much fat, hence it is more healthy. This dish is prepared in advance, then served warm as per order. Chef Jenny Yeo shared that the rempah is prepared in bulk once a month, then packed in several individual large ready to use packs, then frozen in the freezer for convenient use in the entire month. The curry powder is added later when cooking the rempah. 

Food Tasting Notes : Only 4 words to describe : spicy, aromatic, lemak, flavorful. The meat is tender and tears off from the bone easily. This dish is best eaten when served hot. 

Buah Keluak Omelette $12.90 - made using a special recipe & core ingredients: onions (sweet), mushroom, chicken sausage(salty flavor), chili padi, buah keluak(bitter taste) , 3 eggs, and a special flour from Australia. Comes served in thickness 0.5 inch, 3 inch diameter omelette. 

Tasting Notes : Spicy flavor, sweetness from the onions, fragrant aroma because of the richness coming from the 3 eggs. 

Fresh Onion Rings - Here at Chef Jenny Yeo's kitchen she uses fresh onion rings, rolled in flour batter made using her own Chef's Special Flour Batter recipe, deep fried in oil, then served with her home made Special wasabi sauce. 

How it is prepared : Chef Jenny's special flour recipe consists of 6 different types of flour, the special flour mixture is prepare in advance in big quantity, only when she needs the flour mix to make the batter will she scoop up some of it to use. The flour batter cannot be too dilute. The flour batter is made using 6 types of flour, salt, a little sugar, pepper, no MSG, no breadcrumbs. Fresh onions sliced daily, prepared ala minute. The flour coats onion ring well, due to consistency  of flour batter, made fresh, oil must be just nice. The wasabi lends a sprightly taste, and is concocted, grounded, then  mix with mayo, olive oil, then  sweeten it to have a sweet taste. Sprinkle with bits of carrots diced at kitchen here. 

Food Tasting Notes : The onion rings lends a sweet juicy bite because fresh onion is used here, whilst the wasabi sauce lends a sprightly flavor. 

The Promotions 

WOODY FAMILY CAFE is located at :

12F ANDREWS AVENUE 

SEMBAWANG STRAITS ESTATE SINGAPORE 759930 

Tel: 67581185 

Mobile: 98356126 

email: events@woodyfamilycafe.com.sg 

email: yeojenny@woodyfamilycafe.com.sg